My friend Wei and I flew into Seattle, then rented a car to visit Olympic National Park, staying at Port Angeles. Curiously, Port Angeles was originally named Los Angeles by Spanish explorer Juan de Fuca, but the name was later anglicized. We visited Hurricane Ridge, then the Hoh rain forest. The lush ferns and the soaring conifers were impressive, but compared to warmer California, the diversity of meadow species seem low, as was the diversity of trees.

We drove from Seattle to the Northern Cascades National Park via one of the mountain passes. The mountains were very rugged, but most of the time the road doesn't climb high like in California, so the views were mostly of canyons, rivers, and forests. After crossing the Cascade mountains, we drove south across the Columbia basin, a land seemingly dry and greyish, but highly productive agriculturally.